Various apparatus are employed for arranging sheet material in a package suitable for use or sale in commerce. One such apparatus, useful for describing the teachings of the present invention, is a mailpiece inserter system employed in the fabrication of high volume mail communications, e.g., mass mailings. Such mailpiece inserter systems are typically used by organizations such as banks, insurance companies, and utility companies for producing a large volume of specific mail communications where the contents of each mailpiece are directed to a particular addressee. Also, other organizations, such as direct mailers, use mail inserters for producing mass mailings where the contents of each mail piece are substantially identical with respect to each addressee. Examples of inserter systems are the 8 series, 9 series, and APS™ inserter systems available from Pitney Bowes Inc. located in Stamford, Conn., USA.
In many respects, a typical inserter system resembles a manufacturing assembly line. Sheets and other raw materials (i.e., a web of paper stock, enclosures, and envelopes) enter the inserter system as inputs. Various modules or workstations in the inserter system work cooperatively to process the sheets until a finished mail piece is produced. For example, in a mailpiece inserter, an envelope is conveyed downstream utilizing a transport mechanism, such as rollers or a belt, to each of the modules. Such modules include, inter alia, (i) a singulating module for separating a stack of envelopes such that the envelopes are conveyed, one at a time, along the transport path, (ii) a folding module for folding mailpiece content material for subsequent insertion into the envelope, (iii) a chassis module where sheet material and/or inserts, i.e., the content material, are combined to form a collation, (iv) an inserter module which opens an envelope for receipt of the content material, (v) a moistening/sealing module for wetting the flap sealant to close the envelope, (vi) a weighing module for determining the weight of the mailpiece for postage, and (vii) a metering module for printing the postage indicia based upon the weight and/or size of the envelope, i.e., applying evidence of postage on the mailpiece. While these are some of the more commonly used modules for mailpiece creation, it will be appreciated that the particular arrangement and/or need for specialty modules, are dependent upon the needs of the user/customer.
The chassis module includes a transport deck having a plurality of pockets and plurality of overhead feed input stations for dispensing inserts onto each pocket of the transport deck. In the context used herein, “inserts” refers to any sheet material, regardless of size and/or whether folded or unfolded, containing information for inclusion into a mailpiece as content material. In many instances, the inserts are added, by the overhead feed input stations, to sheet material previously supplied, at an upstream input module, to the pockets of the chassis module. Chassis modules may have as many as sixteen (16) to twenty-four (24) feed input stations for supplying each of the underlying pockets with original and/or additional content material. Periodically, these feed input stations must be re-loaded to maintain a steady supply of each type of insert. As a result, there is a continuous need for a re-supply of the various inserts to produce the content material of each mailpiece.
While such inserts are commonly pre-printed and supplied as fixed inputs, i.e., incapable of changing the information provided or configuration of the insert (e.g., folded or unfolded), frequently there is a need to change the information conveyed or change the configuration of the insert. For example, it may be necessary to change the price of a product/service offered, or vary the size of an insert for receipt within a different type of envelope, e.g., envelopes for accepting flats, letter-sized, tri-fold content material. Currently, there are no insert print modules capable of producing and/or arranging a variable supply of content material inserts. Consequently, such changes require that a mailpiece fabricator await the supply of newly printed/configured inserts to produce mailpieces for a particular mail run/job.
A need, therefore, exists for a system and method which facilitates a supply of printed sheet material commensurate with the requirements of a mailpiece inserter and wherein the size and/or configuration of the printed sheet material employed therein may be variable, e.g., folded, unfolded, bi-folded, tri-folded, etc.